25 Facts
by Miss Indigo Starr
Summary: 25 facts about James Potter, set at the start of August 1981.  Other characters in later chapters, rated T for language, references to bulimia, depression and sex later.
1. James Potter

**Twenty-Five Facts About James Potter**

1.) James first realised that his parents weren't going to live much longer when he was eight years old, and his Mother was rushed to 's with Dragonpox. He and his Father visited her every day, staying for as long as possible, but she wasn't often awake, and James would walk around the hospital, looking for something, anything, to take his mind off her. He heard the Healers talking about the rich old woman on the fourth floor, joking that she'd die soon anyway. James ran to the bathrooms and threw up. He vowed never to leave his Mother alone again.

2.) The first person he spoke to on the train was Sirius Black. Sirius was moving slowly across the platform, dragging his trunk along, swearing impressively for a boy of eleven. James hoisted the other end of the trunk up, and helped him carry it into the train. Sirius muttered a thanks as he did so, and asked his name. When he answered "James Potter at your service, good sir,", Sirius's face brightened. He knew his family tree, and James Potter is his second cousin. They chat and laugh, looking for a compartment. Most of them are full. They manage to find one with only one boy in - they ask if it's okay to sit down, and he nods eagerly. He is very tall, and very thin, and very pale, and his hair is light brown, and tufty. His name is Remus Lupin.

3.) James knew he would spend a long time chasing after Lily Evans the very first time he saw her. She was in his compartment, sitting in the corner, sniffling. He went over to her and asked, very nicely, what was wrong. She looked up at him, her green eyes huge, glistening like emeralds, and told him to go away. He was hooked by those eyes, and tried to help, but he was a boy, and an idiot, and didn't really know what to say, and he managed to alienate her furthur. When she left the compartment with Snape, Sirius laughed. "She's way out of your league, mate."

4.) Snape became James's mortal enemy when he hexed James's hair pink. This was because James was hitting on Lily very loudly when she and Snape had been trying to 'study'. Although Sirius, Remus and Peter had laughed themselves stupid, they all swore revenge on Snape, and to never show him mercy again.

5.) James was the one who figured out Remus's secret. The three of them - he, Sirius and Peter - spent a lot of time discussing Remus's monthly 'illness'. They discussed lots of things, so many ideas - but it was only when Peter wondered, out of desperation, if Remus was a vampire. Then it hit James. He yelped it out, scared and amazed at the same time. When they had calmed down, Sirius and James both knew that Remus was still their best friend, still just Remus.

6.) It was James who persuaded Peter to accept Remus as a werewolf. Peter freaked out, but James managed to bring him round. Neither of them, nor Sirius ever mentioned to Remus how close Peter had come to spilling his biggest secret.

7.) James knew the way Remus and Sirius felt about each other before they did. He could easily have been disgusted, shocked, and refused to be friends with people like _them. _But as it was, James could see how perfect they were together, and tried to help nudge them both in the right direction.

8.) James's favourite year in Hogwarts was, by far, his second year. He pulled his favourite ever prank on Snape - a brilliant plan that involved changing Snape's hooked nose to the shape of a trombone, that played 'A Cauldren Full Of Hot, Strong Love' every five minutes. The echo of this charm, even years after the incident, could still be faintly heard when Snape sneezed.

9.) The first girl he ever kissed was Dorcas Meadowes. After winning the Qudditch final, he and the rest of his team got sloshed on Firewhiskey that Sirius had managed to smuggle in from Hogsmeade. James is extremely glad that Lily didn't make the team until their third year.

10.) James has kissed both Sirius and Remus too. When Sirius admitted he was gay to James, James was slightly... Curious. He had certainly asked with a little too much curiousity, anyway, and rather than reply, Sirius took James by suprise by laughing and giving him a smacker straight on the lips. With Remus, it had been his stag night. Remus had been chucking up in the bathroom - he never could hold his liquor - and Sirius had sent James to find him, saying "and give him a kiss from me."

So he did.

11.) James was the first one to forgive Sirius for his prank involving trying to get Snape killed. He knew that his best friend had been the biggest idiot on the planet, but he was still just that - his best friend. Peter had been hard pushed into forgiving him, and seemed resentful of this. Remus drifted around in a daydream like way for weeks after the incident. He didn't forgive Sirius for a long time.

12.) James and Marlene McKinnon had an uneasy truce. The Marauders weren't the only ones who liked to mess around - in fact, the Marauders were often blamed for Marlene's trouble. James agreed to do this, because her plans were ingenious and raised the Marauders 'rep'. In Marlene's case, she simply wanted the laugh, but not the detentions.

13.) James first realised he'd never like to do anything excepting Qudditch outside of school when McGonagall asked in despair what he expected to do with the rest of his life if he didn't apply himself, after a paticuarly amusing transfiguration lesson during which, instead of transforming the tea pot into a biscuit barrell, he turned Snape into a beer barrell.

14.) James became Quidditch captain in his Fourth year. The first team he put together consisted of Sturgis Podmore as seeker, Sirius as keeper, Gid and Fab Prewett as beaters, and Lily Evans, Dorcas Meadowes and himself as chasers.

15.) The first person James ever slept with was a muggle girl. He was in one of his 'hopeless' phases over Lily, as Remus put it. He insisted that he was now totally over Evans, and only had eyes for Lucy, but when the summer ended and he returned to Hogwarts, he never spoke to, or of, her again.

16.) James's favourite girl - apart from Lily - is Molly Prewett, except, no, her name is Weasley now. He keeps forgetting. She had her first child the year he started Hogwarts, but he sees her outside of school. Technically, he's related to her - she's his third cousin's brother-in-law's daughter. He loves her brothers - Gid and Fab - too. She was like the big sister he never had - though he always wanted a sibling. She used to ruffle his hair and call him 'baby Jamesie'.

17.) The first friendly contact he had with Lily was when his parents died. She found him after Quidditch practice, purposefully looking for him; wondering if he was all right, what with his mother dying within two weeks of his father. She consoled him gently and he cried, curled in a ball, with his head on her lap whilst she stroked his hair.

18.) When Lily eventually agreed to go out with him, James didn't sleep for three days.

19.) James took Lily to an island he and the others had discovered one night on the lake, for their first date - they flew there on their broomsticks. He took a picnic, but they ended up paddling in the water and feeding most of the food to the giant squid.

20.) When James was taken home to meet Lily's family, he threw up all over Vernon's oh-so-shiney shoes. Vernon was recounting a story about a beautiful stag he had shot, and James was utterly repulsed.

21.) James bought a house in Godric's Hollow in his seventh year. He asked Lily to move in on their last day. She said yes, but hesitantly. He thought he could never be happier.

22.) James asked Lily to marry him in a moment of impulsiveness. She was sitting by the fire in their little house - it was winter, and dark outside. She was patching up a cushion he had burst and singing to herself, he hair shining like autumn in the firelight. She looked so beautiful that he just couldn't help himself anymore.

23.) Their wedding was as lavish as he could make it. Remus and Lily arranged it, whilst Sirius and Peter put all their efforts into the Stag Night.

24.) James was terrified when Lily told him she was pregnant. He couldn't believe they'd been stupid enough to bring a baby into the war - an innocent baby. But he smiled, and the tears that escaped his eyes were happy tears. He held Lily in his arms and told her he loved her - kissed her, and kissed the bump.

25.) James's son is the only thing that has ever mattered to him as much as Lily. He is a beautiful little boy - with his own hair and features, but Lily's beautiful green eyes instead of James's hazel ones. James has always wanted a boy called Harry. Lily says she want's a little girl next - a slightly scary thought, but James doesn't mind, as long as he has Lily. His family are so perfect and now they are in hiding, he can barely help himself checking the perimeters every ten minutes without fail. Lily often catches him sitting on the end of the bed, fully clothed in the middle of the night, just watching out of the window. He knows he cannot let that murderer in here, but something in him wonders if even his love cannot save his son and his wife.


	2. Andromeda Tonks

**Twenty-Five facts About Andromeda Tonks**

1.) Andromeda loves her parents and sisters desperatly, though you won't hear her admit it these days. Bella was mischevious and rude and bossy, but fun and free spirited and wild. Cissa was young, meek and silent, but sweet, and kind, and a good listener. Her parents were uptight, and cruel, and domieering, but they never failed to make sure Andy felt safe, and loved. She insists that she doesn't care for her family any more - they _aren't_ her family any more - but sometimes, she almost wishes she had just conformed.

2.) She was a Hufflepuff. The hat wanted to make her a Gryffindor, but she begged not to be made so different. The hat listened. Her parents were immensley disappointed, but at least they didn't send a howler like Sirius's parents, when he was sorted into Gryffindor a few years later.

3.) She always felt a special bond with Sirius - she was seven older, but that didn't matter. He was her best friend - out of all her male friends anyway. He understood - even as a young boy, he understood. She loved him especially, because he, too, she knew, hated the House of Black. Not his brother, or his parents, but the wretched surname itself. She knew how it felt to want to please your family, but hate everything that they stand for

4.) Ted Tonks always liked to flirt with her. She would respond if it wasn't in a class with her sisters. Her sisters didn't like her house at all - all mudbloods and blood traitor filth, as Bella would say. Narcissa would tell her to shut up if she went on too long - which was a big step for quiet little Cissy.

5.) Andromeda first started standing up to her parents in her second year, when they refused to let her have a birthday party. Apparently it was too common for a Black girl. She snuck out and went to a muggle disco with the rest of the Hufflepuff girls. Her parents never found out.

6.) Ted took her to Hogsmeade in the third year. She had to hide from her sisters all day - but he didn't mind. She has no idea why her parents say muggle borns are beneath her - if anything, she isn't good enough for him. He really does listen when she speaks, not gawp at her like Lucius Malfoy.

7.) She was betrothed to Lucius Malfoy from birth. He used to think that gave him the right to leer at her breasts.

8.) He stopped leering the day she slapped him.

9.) She never really intended on marrying Malfoy - it just kept her Mother happy if she went along with the wedding plans and the akward meetings. Whenever she thought of the future, all she could picture was a hot country and Ted Tonks, whom she was now dating - albeit secretly.

10.) Her family called her Andy. Ted was the only person who didn't use that nickname - he called her Dromeda. She much prefered this. She always thought, if she ever, you know, ended up marrying him - which she wasn't expecting, but was hoping for - she would be Dromeda Tonks, instead of Andy Black. She could be a whole new person.

11.) She never understood why Ted put up with her horrible family, and the beliefs they held. She couldn't believe someone as good as him would date a Black girl - a girl from the most horribly arrogant, snobbish and ignorant family there was. She didn't understand why, whenever Bella spit in his hair, or Cissy made a snarky comment and Andromeda wouldn't retaliate, that he didn't just tell her to push off - that he didn't want to be treated like dirt any more.

12.) Malfoy really started trying to 'get to know her' in the fifth year. Andy knew he just wanted to get her into bed. For a supposed 'nobleman', his intentions were anything but. She would tell him to go away, and he would tell her parents, and it would end in screaming matches until three in the morning, after which Andromeda would go into her room, sobbing, swearing to herself she was going to get out of that house, that family. Then Cissy would knock timidly on her door, and bring her coco, and Andy would calm down for her sister's sake.

13.) Although she really did love Ted, they weren't a perfect couple. She would say something snobbish from reflex, then he would shout and she would shout, then she would cry and he would hold her. These fights were horrible whilst they went on, but the making up - snuggling into the same armchair and swapping 'I love you's - always made them worth it, and Andy knew she'd never want to stop fighting, because that would be the day they'd stopped feeling.

14.) She started really hating Bella when she said that Andy might as well get on with it and just sleep with Lucius. "You're going to have to anyway." Bella told her she was there to bring about the next generation of the Black family - she had to carry on the line. Andy looked at her in disgust every time she said this - especially when she said it to Cissy, who was betrothed to Augustus Rookwood.

15.) Bella herself was betrothed to Rodolphus Lestrange. When Andy finally snapped and told her to shag her own boyfriend and stop talking about hers, Bella laughed and lit up a cigarette. Apparantly, she already had - but just to keep him happy. She insisted she was meant for greater things than childbirth. Andy got a horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach every time Bella talked like that, because she thought she knew what she meant, but part of her refused to believe it.

16.) She was forced to believe that Bella was involved with the recent muggle killings when she found Bella's notebook of spells. They weren't nice spells. They were torture and murder and drowning and wounding and cutting and bleeding and writhing spells. Andy burnt the notebook, but she couldn't get the fact that her sister was a murderer out of her head. This is when she started locking her door before she went to bed.

17.) In Seventh year, she told Ted everything. All about Malfoy, and Bella, and how worried she was about Cissy, and how much she hated, hated, _hated, _the most noble house of Black. He held her as she sobbed, and said when she'd finished.

"Well it looks like we're going to have to get married then."

18.) On her last day at Hogwarts, she kissed Ted fully in front of everyone. Going home on the train, she sat with her boyfriend and her friends - safe from Bella's wrath, and happy for the first time in a long time.

19.) When she got home, Bella told her exactly what she thought of her. Andromeda tried not to cry, but couldn't quite acheive that, so she settled for a stony expression and a few silent tears as she packed. It was only when Bella tried to curse her that she said anything - and she said Pertrificus Tortalus. She told Bella everything as she packed, explaining to her sister what she wanted, what she needed, why the House of Black was wrong. Sick, and wrong. But when she looked into Bella's eyes, she could no longer see her sister. Just a mad, soulless murderer.

20.) She left without seeing her parents, but Cissy followed her out into the garden. She asked where Andy was going, and why. She tried to explain. She thought maybe Cissy would understand. And maybe she did. She cried, but when Andy reached out to her, Cissy told her to get out of her house. She called her a filthy blood traitor. Andy cried much harder over this than anything Bella said.

21.) She and Ted took a tour of the world to get away from it all. For two years, not one. Ted was reasonably well off, and though she wanted to pay, he insisted. For my fiancee, he would always say. She adored every second of this new freedom - and started owling people. Molly Weasley, and her little cousin Sirius. They both responded enthusiastically. They, and Ted, are her family now.

22.) When she found out she was pregnant, they were touring America for the third time. She told Ted at a muggle diner in Omaha. She had been worried, but he just laughed, and took her back to England to finally get married.

23.) Ted insisted if the baby was a boy, they'd name him something simple. Andromeda agreed, but hoped it was a girl, whom she could name not for a star, but with an equally beautiful name

24.) Nymphadora being born was the happiest moment of her life - well, that and her marriage. She thought about making Sirius god father, but he's only just gone thirteen. She makes Molly Weasly Godmother, and settles at that.

25.) She knows Bella is out to get her, but she has hope for the goodness inside Cissy that she knows there is. She hopes that everyone has the same good side, that's been repressed but is waiting there, just under the surface, to be found. She hopes this war will be over soon, and when it is, she swears she'll try to help her baby sister.


	3. Molly Weasley

**Twenty-Five Facts About Molly Weasley**

_A/N: Thanks for the feedback, I know I've taken forever to update. I've taken a lot of liberties with Molly, but I this is how I envisioned her youth. Sorry if it seems OOC. P.S, I don't own Harry Potter._

1. She has always been one for big families. To Molly, just the three of them were not enough, although her Father always jokes that they are three too many. She has six children, but she will keep trying until she finally gets the daughter she craves.

2. Although Molly loves large families, she hates her own. The only time she went to stay with Uncle Ignatius and Aunt Lucretia made her realise that her family weren't tolerant, or happy. In fact, the only family members she likes are the Potters. She calls Dorea and Charlus 'Auntie' and 'Uncle', even though Dorea is something like her second cousin by marriage. They feel more like family than the other Prewetts. Little James Potter has always been a brother, in her eyes. Oh - and there are the other two 'traitors', Andromeda and Sirius. She made contact with Andromeda when she left home to marry Ted Tonks, a muggle born. They bonded when Andromeda fell pregnant with Nymphadora, (who has come to regard Molly as some sort of Aunt) at the same time as Molly was pregnant with Charlie. Molly got to know Sirius after he left school. He's rather like another James, and she loves this contact, these people that remind her that her family isn't all bad.

3. She took a great liking to the Weasley brothers the minute she arrived at Hogwarts, because they shared her flaming red hair. Neither her brothers, mother, or father had it.

4. She really did brew a love potion one time. She and her friend were attempting to ensnare the said-friend's crush. She thought it hilarious, but sabotaged it so that the poor Ravenclaw was only intoxicated for an hour, rather than the lifetime that was originally planned. She'll never tell her children these stories - she doesn't want any of the boys to get ideas.

5. When she was in second year, she finally realised the reason she loved Charms so much was because she was sat next to Arthur Weasley. He seemed to enjoy it too - calling her a silly nickname she would keep for the rest of her life.

6. Arthur finally asked her out to the first Hogsmeade weekend in their third year. That was the day she fell in love with him, though she's far too embarrassed to ever admit it happened that fast. She realised she loved him when she caught herself staring in awe at the beautiful look of wonder and curiousity in his face as he pointed out an aeroplane flying high in the sky above Zonko's.

7. Her favourite food is Apple Tart. She used to be worried about being fat, but in one of his rarer kind moments, Fabion hugged Molly hard and told her she was beautiful. Her brother means more to her than her figure. She never worried about eating it again.

8. She got an owl for her fourteenth birthday. His name was Errol. She loves him - he is the sweetest, most reliable owl she's ever known.

9. She was on the Quidditch team for her last two years, as a chaser. Arthur was always hopeless, but that never stopped him coming out on Saturday mornings to practise with her, and cheering her on wholeheartedly in every match.

10. She always wanted a sister, but her Father always swore that he would never, ever have another child after Gid and Fab. After this, she was determined to have a daughter - she needed female company. Her brothers, little James, the Weasley brothers, her children... It was all too much testosterone sometimes.

11. Arthur asked him to marry her in the summer before the start of their sixth year, with a real ruby and silver ring. They were both sixteen. Molly said yes. Though he proposed again in front of their families at the end of their seventh year, they both agreed that they didn't want to wait with the wedding. To them, at least, they'd already been engaged for about two years - though they didn't mention this aloud. Molly hasn't told anyone what the extra ring next to her engagement ring is, but it has red stones and a delicate silver band.

12. Her wedding wasn't a big affair - the Weasleys were poor, and so was her little family. They had all been cut off from the massive Black wealth, but she didn't care. She despised the Blacks, and their money. Instead it was a simple ceremony in the garden of the tiny cottage Arthur had built on an old family field. The house now is a lot larger - added to whenever a new Weasley appears - but whenever she sits in that garden, she always thinks of the feeling of complete and utter euphoria she had that day.

13. She wasted no time in getting pregnant. Bill was born a year after to the wedding. He was the most beautiful baby she had ever seen - and he was all _hers._

14. She had to compromise on her eldest child's name. Arthur wanted to name him after his brother - it was a family name, apparantly - but Molly didn't want a name as old fashioned as Billius foisted upon a little boy. She agreed to call him Bill, as long as his full name was William. She picked his middle name too, compromising that one of the other children she was planning on having could have it as Billius middle name. Arthur gulped when she said this, but nodded weakly.

15. At first, Molly wanted to be a healer. And she could have been - she took the appropriate O. and N.E., and passed with flying colours. But when Bill was born, it just wasn't an option, and she found she didn't care about being poor, as long as she had her boys.

16. She thinks Charlie looks more like Billius than Bill did. And Percy looks like her Father. But Arthur named both of them. She always liked the name Percy though - her Mother's old owl was called Percy. He had fluffy feathers like her baby's hair. Maybe Percy looks more like an owl than her father.

17. She was there the day Lily came over to meet James's family. Not only were his parents there, but Molly, a little fat from Fred and George at the time, her other children, husband, brothers and parents were there. Lily performed admirably under the strain. Five year old Bill fawned on her. Mollie was extremely impressed. She was kind, sweet, charming, pretty, clever, and a flaming red head. She began owling Lily reguarly, and they are now best friends - Molly has made several younger friends, who were pregnant at the same time as her, including Alice Longbottom, who joins her, Andromeda and Lily once a week for pound cake and a good moan.

18. When her twins were born, (she _knew _she'd have twins, it always happened in her family), she named them after Gid and Fab because she knew, from the first, totally identical, wicked grin they shot her in their cots, that they would be the reincarnation of her brothers. Gideon and Fabian were such cumbersome names for such tiny babies - so she took the intitals and went from there.

19. When Gideon and Fabian were murdered, Molly died too. She didn't eat or sleep for a week, just sat silently in her room, crying. Billius, being uncharacteristically angelic, had the kids, and Arthur took the week off, just to hold her in his arms whilst she wept. She never thought she'd be in such pain. Her Mother had died three years before hand, and then her Father the year after, but they had been natural, peaceful deaths. She'd still sobbed at their funerals, naturally - but seeing a pregnant, weeping Marlene McKinnon, clutching at the edge of Gid's coffin had been too much.

20. At Marlene's death, again, Molly physically felt ill - throwing up her food and screaming. The last traces of her brother lived on in that girl. And now... Now everything was gone. Molly might've felt she had nothing to live for any more, but then she would feel Arthur's hands, cool and soothing on her face, holding her hair back when she threw up, tracing calming patterns on her skin to soothe her to sleep.

21. She joined the Order of the Pheonix to be a simple pencil pusher. She didn't have much time, but someone had to do it, and all those people who were currently loaded with paperwork could be out there, fighting.

22. Molly was not officially named James and Lily's baby's Godmother, but Lily always said that if, God forbid, something happened to them and Sirius, Harry should definitly live with the Weasleys. This was always something she took seriously. She imagines her youngest son Ron, born only a few months before Harry, being best friends with Harry in the future - they'll grow up together. The war will be over soon, and they'll grow up safe, and happy, and her family will keep growing, and growing. Harry is just another son to her.

23. Since he was born, Molly has insisted that Harry should come to play every Thursday - he and Ron get on well, but Fred and George like to steal his things.

24. Although she loves James, Sirius, and his boy friend Remus, she's never trusted Peter. She doesn't know why - but something in his watery eyes just screams LIAR! at her.

25. When Molly heard the Potters were going into hiding, some part of her wanted to retreat into the Buliemic, silent-or-screaming phase she went through at Gid, Fab, and Marlene's deaths. But they aren't going to die, Molly knows it, she just knows they won't. They wouldn't take her extra family too - not with the eldest Weasley brother dead, Auntie Dorea, Uncle Charlus, her parents, her brothers... No. Her extended brother and sister and son would be fine. Arthur tells her this as he rocks her back to sleep, after she wakes up screaming, seeing again the wreckage of her brother's house, and their mangled bodies. It's all going to be fine.


	4. Marlene McKinnon

**Twenty-Five Facts About Marlene McKinnon**

1. Marlene was never really known by her own name until her third year in Hogwarts. Before hand, she'd just been known as the McKinnon girl - the only sister to her many brothers. She finally got her own identity when she and Dorcas Meadowes started going to duelling club. As duelling partners, they were unbeatable. When they beat the reigning Slytherin champions, Marlene and Dorcas were lifted on the shoulders of what seemed like the whole Gryffindor house, and they held an all-night party to rival the celebrations after a Quidditch match.

2. Marlene has always been a gifted witch, she just never seemed like it next to Dorcas.

3. She and Dorcas became best friends on the train. Of course, Lily and Mary were their best friends too.

4. She has always been infatuated with Gideon Prewett - and she doesn't know why, because he and Fabian are practically the same person. Gid and Fab Prewett were in the same year as one of her brothers, so she knew the Prewett family from a young age. She likes Molly - but is also slightly scared of her.

5. She tried out for Quidditch every year - for whatever position was going. She only got into the team in the fifth year though - and slightly resented Dorcas for this. Of course, she should have resented Lily, but she always thought it was just Potter trying to get into her pants by putting her on the team. She became a beater when Gid and Fab left.

6. She adored messing around. It was, in fact, her genius that allowed the whole "turn-snape-into-a-rampant-flamingo-for-the-whole-of-charms" thing to be pulled off spectacuarly. Professor Flitwick had no idea what to do for half an hour - and that was saying something. The Marauders took the credit of course, but she didn't care. It was hilarious, and she didn't get a detention. Plus Lily would have killed her.

7. It's not that Marlene didn't _like _Snape in particular, it's just he was a Slytherin and she was a Gryffindor. That's how it worked. And anyway, even though Lily always stood up for him, Marlene was pretty sure that Snape was as prejudiced as the rest of them.

8. She's been in the hospital wing twice - once from a rouge bludger breaking her leg in Qudditch in her sixth year, but the first time was when Avery fired a paticuarly nasty curse at her from behind in their second year. No one could prove it was him, but she knows it was because Dorcas beat him in a Duel they were paired up for in DADA. Dorcas visited her bed every day, very guilty. She and Dorcas jinxed Avery's pumpkin juice the day she got out of the wing. He never bothered them again.

9. She visited Lily and Mary a lot in the holidays because she thought it was hilarious. Muggles, honestly. The things they came up with.

10. Dorcas started dating Remus Lupin in their third year, and started bugging Marlene to get with Sirius Black (so they could double, she insisted). Marlene doesn't understand how she can be so insensitive at times - Sirius and Remus had some big fight that the girls aren't allowed to know about, and now Sirius spends most of his time looking depressed.

11. Really, she wanted to be in Ravenclaw. The sorting hat wanted to put Dorcas in Ravenclaw. She's always felt a little bitter about that.

12. Some of her brothers were in Ravenclaw too. She wonders sometimes if her Mother prefers them because of this.

13. She hates pumpkin more than anything in the world. When Gideon found out about this, he showed her the way to the kitchens, so she could get something other than pumpkin juice to drink. Sometimes she'd catch him in the kitchen by himself, and she'd savour all of these moments.

14. Dorcas really started on at her about dating in their fifth year. Apparently it was time to stop wishing Gideon would notice her when he obviously didn't like her that way - and also he had _left _if Marlene hadn't noticed, so he's never going to look for a school kid girl-friend. Maybe Marlene hated Dorcas a little bit when she said that.

15. Marlene's never been frightened - not of death. That's why the Death Eaters don't frighten her. So she joins the Order when she's asked without hesitation.

16. When she leaves school, she moves in with Dorcas and Mary. They miss Lily. Marlene goes to see her a lot, and one day, the Prewetts are there. She's so excited to see them. Gideon kisses her goodbye. It was probably the best day of her life.

17. Dorcas frightens her slightly when they go off on assaignments. They go together - an immortal team. Dorcas is _amazing _at the duelling. Marlene is good, but Dorcas was _born_ to fight. At the end of confrontations, there will be blood and lots of dead death-eaters, and Marlene will look like a mess, and Dorcas will pat her hair back into place, and smile, looking the same as she did when they came in. Marlene thinks Dorcas must be invincible.

18. She moved in with Gideon after three months of seeing him at the Potters. Why should they wait? She's loved him all her life. And really, although no one says it, everyone is rushing into things these days. War makes people uncertain.

19. She's scared of leaving her friends, because she worries about Mary. She can't see Mary as a grown-up, clever, strong woman. She sees her as the eleven year old who cried herself to sleep after being spat at by some Slytherin pricks on her first day at Hogwarts.

20. Gideon and Fabian are amazing partners when it comes to duelling, just as she and Dorcas are. That never stopped her worrying.

21. She found out she was pregnant after two months of living with Gideon. Her forbade her to go on any more missions. He told her he loved her. Once this mess is done, he promised, they'd get married.

didn't think she'd ever be happy again, when he died three weeks later, torn to pieces by the scum of the earth. Dorcas and Mary have to take Marlene by side-along apparition back to their flat. She couldn't speak for the first hour after they picked her up, just cried silently. Then came screaming denial, fury and horror. She managed to destroy just about every piece of furniture her friends owned. She collapsed onto the floor after a while, her throat raw, her eyes burning red and sore.

23. The baby kept her going. It was a piece of Gideon - the last piece of him left. Mary and Dorcas swore to find and kill bastards that did it. They were gone a lot. Marlene spends her time staring into space, one hand on her growing belly.

24. She was the first McKinnon to die. Her brothers, having recieved a tip off, found her body. The death eaters hadn't yet left. There were a lot of them - they must have though Dorcas would be there with her. Her brothers were all slaughtered.

25. Marlene didn't fight. She accepted her death. Sitting straight backed in her chair, she faced her murderers defiantly. They tortured her, but she never screamed once, instead she laughed. She'd already faced the worst pain in the world. And when death rushed towards her in the final flash of brightest green, her last thought was of Gideon's infectious and delicious smile.


End file.
